A New Jersey public school was within its rights to give detention to a six-grade student who told a classmate who doesn’t eat meat that “vegetarians are idiots,” state educations officials ruled this week.
The student, who also told the classmate “he should eat meat because he’d be smarter and have bigger brains,” received five detentions for the comments that school officials determined to be “bullying” because they targeted a “distinguishing characteristic” (vegetarianism) as defined by state law.
The incident occurred in 2014. The ruling is the result of a legal challenge filed by the student’s parent the following year. The family’s attorney said he did not plan to file an appeal.
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